What is Project Unicorn?
We believe solving data interoperability challenges facing districts and schools is critical to ensuring that teachers have the information they need to do their jobs and to innovate in instructional practices.
Project Unicorn is an effort to improve data interoperability within K-12 education. We aim to create a community of innovators who make the broader case for secure interoperability by determining shared priorities, working in partnership with school systems and vendors to understand its importance and benefits, creating a demand side push for interoperability through partnerships, and educating buyers to consider the total cost of ownership through informed comparison of vendors.
Watch our video to hear how Project Unicorn started, why we care so much about interoperability, and where we’re going to support schools, districts, vendors, and states.
HISTORY of PROJECT UNICORN
In April 2016, a group of over 25 educators from innovative public schools in the country gathered in Brooklyn for the first Data Whiz Summit. This group crafted unique projects that aimed to solve common “pain points” that furthered innovation and led to better student outcomes. Many of these projects and pain points had a common origin: an inability to use the information that schools had already collected. As the educators and school leaders in the room discussed these issues and possible solutions, it became clear that being able to securely compare and analyze data schools already collected would help improve existing systems. These conversations helped create Project Unicorn.
Among the challenges discussed at Data Whiz was the reality that data is too often inaccessible and shared via non-secure methods. Recognizing that synergy, cost saving, and better academic outcomes could be realized, we outlined shared issues and priorities to create a set of principles and a preliminary rubric designed to spur smart demand in data management and interoperability. The principles reflect concerns and priorities shared by many districts and schools, including: data format, data-standard alignment, unique identifiers, human-readable vs. machine-readable files, continuous data vs. snapshots, data rights and access to data, data exchange options, method and frequency of transfer, privacy and protecting student data, sign-on, rostering and authorization levels, tiered specifications, and best practices. This group created a rubric across these categories to allow for the side-by-side comparison of technology tools, and to empower schools and districts with the language to demand from vendors secure, controlled interchange of data among tools.
Later that April, a group of educators, school staff, and data experts considered these principles and thought about how to accurately define data interoperability, procurement, data standards, and the relevance of data to teaching and learning. This group of grassroots leaders gathered to consider ways to drive action spurred by an alliance of concerned organizations and propelled by teachers, schools, and districts.
With support from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, InnovateEDU, a Brooklyn based non-profit, has been leading the Project Unicorn effort. Project Unicorn is focused on improving the adoption of industry adopted data interoperability standards in the education technology space and empowering districts and states to be smart consumers in their procurement of technology.